Instance grouping guide
The beginning of a successful instance group is the Holy Trinity, which means having a Tank, a Healer and fill up the group with Damage Dealers. Having these basics covered does by no means guarantee a successful run though. In order to prevail, the group has to function as a team, people must work together in a coordinated way. The litmus test for good coordination is always aggro management. In the ideal case, the tank (main tank, MT) holds all the aggro (which means that all mobs attack only him), the healer thus just needs to concentrate on keeping the MT alive, and the rest of the group kills the mobs one after the other. Functions Besides the basic duties of the holy trinity there are a few more quite important functions: *The Leader (mark mobs with Raid Target Icons) *Puller (start the fight with the first hit on the mob) *Crowd Control (CC, take mobs temporarily out of the fight) *Since the advent of the raid icons, the Main Assist isn't used that much anymore. In some cases it's still invaluable to have one Less frequently groups additionally have the following: *Off-Tank a second tank, sometimes really important in large pulls * Scout (aka "The Reconnaissance") Marking up mobs Before the pull, the group leader should mark with raid icons all mobs which will (or could) be pulled. The players must agree on a order in which the mobs will be killed. Normally a fixed symbol is used to designate the mob which is "due" (usually Skull), whereas other symbols indicate the CC targets. The general kill order should be healers first, casters second, anything else third. Healers prolong the fight and casters usually do high amounts of damage, while both are usually relatively easy to kill. If there are too many mobs to mark them all, or if the group just feels lazy, it is a good idea to desginate a Main Assist (MA). The main assist should be a dps class with no other in-combat duties (like healing or CC). Party members should not pick their own targets, but rather always assist the MA. The Assist Main Tank/Main Assist macro/mod makes assisting very quick and easy. Crowd Control When there are large groups of mobs that cannot be pulled individually, CC skills become very important. The group leader needs to know the capabilities of each party member and when to use them. There are many such abilities (the most well-known being the Mage's Sheep). See crowd control for more information. Breaking CC early (by damaging the CC'd mob) is one frequent reason for deaths. All group members need to be aware which mobs will be CC'd, and those applying the CC need to take extra care to refresh it when it breaks. The Pull Every group should have one designated puller. He should try to pull one mob at a time without aggroing more mobs than absolutely neccessary, and pull mobs from weakest to strongest. The most common mistakes novice players make when pulling are: * Failing to designate an official puller. * Multiple players pulling more than one mob. * Pulling from the middle of a group. * Pulling before sap, as sap must happen before combat begins. For maximum safety, the party should wait some distance away from the mobs, and the puller should run to the group after gaining aggro, so if the pull is bad, only the puller dies and the party is safe. Parties containing Hunters can make use of a pulling tactic called the Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety which, if done correctly, allows for 100% protection from bad pulls for the entire party (occasionally excluding the hunter himself). Additionally, at level 70 Hunters gain the invaluable ability of Misdirection, which allows them to transfer the initial aggro they gain onto the tank. Aggro building After the pull, it is imperative that the group does not immediately start blasting away with all available means. Give your tank enough time to build solid aggro on the mobs. Especially warriors need to build some rage before they can seriously create aggro. One safe method is to wait until the tank is at 50% health. If he's a warrior, waiting for 3 to 4 Sunders on the mob is a good idea too. Don't shoot, don't backstab, and try not to heal - the only permitted action for non-tanks in this stage is crowd control. Feel free to sheep, sap and shackle, but stick to some plan. Priests with Holy Nova can also use this early in the pull. It heals those in AoE, and damages all enemies while causing NO aggro. But pay attention not to accidentially break CC. Similarly, Prayer of Mending and shamans' Earth Shield on the Main Tank are very good, because they do not create aggro on the healer, but rather on the tank. Warlocks and hunters, turn off auto-torment/auto-growl on your Pet or Voidwalker, since this draws mobs away from the tank and prevents him or her from being able to build aggro. The Battle Battles in an instance should be precise and controlled. Novice players often behave the same way in an instance that they would when soloing. They separate and attempt to fight individual skirmishes. This defeats the entire point of grouping, and virtually guarantees a wipe. Instances are designed to be almost impossible for a single player, so your group must try to act as a single entity. The most common mistakes novice players make during battle are: * Scattering, thus drawing adds. * Failing to assist the main assist. * Failing to keep aggro off the Healer (or Nuker). * Pulling entire groups of mobs. * Failing to act as a team. * Breaking crowd control (Sheep, Hunter traps, Sap or Shackle) * Looting during battle. This is highly unwise because it diverts attention away from the battle as the group members examine the loot popup. * Fearing, because fear will frequently cause mobs to run away randomly into other mobs causing more aggro. In many fights (boss fights in particular), there is usually more to watch out for than simply tank and spank the mobs. Make sure you aren't making life harder in battle by standing in range of an AoE attack when you're a long ranged attacker, or standing in places that may get you attacked by patrols or other nearby mobs. On the same note, watch out for mobs that can fling you away, into the air. They'll run at you and you'll go flying--make sure this doesn't send you toward another group of mobs or maybe worse, off the edge of a cliff. When possible, fight these mobs with your back to a wall. Post Battle First of all the group needs to stay together post-battle. One easy mistake is that the next mobs are pulled too early before the casters have regained enough Mana. The most common mistakes novice players make post-battle are: * Abandoning Casters who are regenerating mana. * Wandering from the group, becoming lost or aggroing mobs. * Failing to wait for members who need to accomplish quest tasks. * Failing to wait for rezzes before looting. Remember: It's as much the Leaders job to check everyone is ready, as it is your own. You can help by making sure you communicate in plenty of time if you are ready or not; equally the Main Tank should check to see if the group is ready for the next encounter. Dying and Wipe prevention You're gonna die. You've only got a little health left. There's a monster beating on you or a spell flying at you and in a few more hits it'll be all over. What can you do? DO NOT RUN! You can't escape, the Mobs will follow you all the way to the Instance entrance. When running, you're also more vulnerable, block, dodge and parry don't work any more and you will be dazed. Running just makes it harder for people to help you. It makes it harder for the tank to get the mob off of you and save you. You might aggro more mobs making the rest of the party's time even more miserable. Running does nothing to help you. The only situation where running is allowed is if you are sure that a wipe will occur and the instance entrance is not far away. It is also important to look for a safe spot to die when you have a self-rez (like Soulstone or Ankh). In that case, don't turn around but use strafing (default 'Q' and 'E' keys) instead. Do let the rest of the party know that you have aggro, the healer and tank may not have noticed. A simple yell of "HELP" will do. The tank has ways to pull all mobs onto him or a Healer usually has a way to be able to stop you from taking a limited amount of Damage. Do remember to pop a Healing Potion, don't be shy to ask party members to provide one or two. If death is inevitable, try to find an place clear of mobs to make resurrecting you easier. Don't release on death. This allows you to share the rewards after the battle. It also leaves your name above your head and a dot on the mini map so the healer can find you to Resurrect. It is often hard to locate a dead party member in a pile of corpses or in lava if he has released. If a wipe is about to happen, the party should concentrate on keeping someone alive who can Resurrect. The leader should make the decision that a wipe is inevitable and announce this to the rest of the party. Prior to that announcement, the party should without compromise try to fight and win, after the leader announced the wipe people should take the appropriate actions without doubt or hesitation. If a wipe will occur, the party must try to assure that somebody able to resurrect will either survive, or be able to self-rez after the wipe. If the pull has gone bad, but the healer is not yet in combat, he should run back to a safe place and just watch the others die. If the rezzer is already dead, a druid could use Rebirth on him, after that the rezzer should again stay out of combat. Wipes can sometimes be prevented by a Survival Hunter. If the main tank is dead, the Hunter can drop an Explosive Trap, activate Deterrence, and engage in temporary melee tanking in order to attempt to at least ensure the survival of the Healer. If a Retribution specced Paladin is also present in the group, they can augment the Explosive Trap with Consecrate, as well as helping the Hunter tank if they still have enough health. Any rogues can use vanish and hunters can Feign Death to put themselves out of combat (and thus survive the wipe). If they happen to be an Engineer and bring jumper cables, they have a chance to resurrect the healer. Any Shamans in the party can use their Reincarnation ability, and every rezzer can be soulstoned to self-rez too (see the Soulstone article for details on its usage). One good rule of thumb is not to use self-rez abilities while the combat is still going on. Paladins can place another Resurrecter out of combat and safe with their Divine Intervention spell. Additional Tips * Curiosity Killed The Cat Don't touch any usable 'cog-icon' objects until the entire group is rested and ready. Several instances have usable bits and pieces - doors, levers, buttons, etc, and many of these will spawn new enemies. Only do so when everyone is ready and alert. Also, don't talk to NPCs - even friendly ones may start some event or attack you after a short dialogue. * Watch Your Back! One common feature of the Instance is triggered 'Patrols' being spawned behind the party when it reaches certain key points. Just because you've killed everything you've seen on the way in, doesn't always mean there's nothing behind you. Have someone keep an eye out behind. * Listen to your party. '''In the end this is a group effort and, as such, decisions have to be taken to benefit all. Also, do not be afraid to ask. Being marked as a newbie is better than causing a wipe because you were too afraid to ask if you could activate something and did it anyway. Although it's often forgotten, everyone was a newbie once. * '''Not Out Yet. Similarly, just because you've made it to the end of the map and killed the big monster with the exotic name, it doesn't necessarily mean you're done yet. Further scripted events on the way out should not be ruled out, and if the expedition has taken longer than two hours, (wipes, etc), respawning becomes a possibility. Stay together and on high alert until the party is out to the Meeting Stone and breathing fresh air again. Fear Be particularly careful using fear in any Instance, as more often than not, fear may draw more mobs and turn a close call into a hopeless battle. As a general rule of thumb, simply don't use fear in an instance. Cases in which fear would be an acceptable thing to do are only when: *You are the healer and are about to die in a situation where the group can obviously not survive without you. *You are saving the healer when he is about to die and the group can obviously not survive without him. *You are absolutely sure that there's no possible way for the fear to draw adds. How Not To Do Things The problem with most MMORPG players is that they want to be unique. While this is fine if you solo or duo, strong individualism is a liability in high-level groups and/or instances. In groups, it's best to remember the words of Tyler Durden (Fight Club): "You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake." Following on from this, a serious problem that is often encountered with players within WoW in particular is that although certain activities within the game (raids, battlegrounds etc) ideally benefit from a level of group discipline vaguely approaching that which is usually only otherwise seen within real-world military groups, the people playing the game will generally almost exclusively consist of civilians, who are thus entirely unaccustomed in many cases to working within a group in such a focused and controlled manner. This lack of familiarity with a desirable level of discipline is in itself probably the single main cause of wipes and other failures during instances or other group-oriented activities within the game. Ask most good group players what they hate worst in other group members, and 99% of the time they'll say, "Tanks who think they're Rogues and Priests who think they're Mages." The truth is, DPS is the easiest role. You don't have to keep aggro off anybody or keep them alive. Within the group dynamic, each member has a certain expectation of what the other group members will be doing. When that member goes against these expectations, chaos ensues, and a wipe is virtually guaranteed. Poor Group Dynamics Most of this Guide is obviously geared towards pick-up groups or guilds that haven't yet established much routine in grouping or raiding. If you're in a Group that already works, you probably don't need this Guide. But what if you're in a group that doesn't work, and there doesn't seem to be a way to fix it? The best course of action is to simply find another group before even starting the instance. If that's not an option, ask the Group Leader to handle it, or ask to take the Lead in order to secure the group. If you are the Group Leader, then you'll need to make sure every know their Role; but be careful not to tell them how to play their class, as this is not a Leaders role. The most important part of a successful group is positive attitude. Don't forget to tell them when they did something good, but also comment them on mistakes, and if you realize they still don't understand warn them then kick them. Give players slightly lower level a chance to run the instance, this might not be your first Character, but it might be their first, and as such might not be totally clear on their Class Role. Also be positive and don't yell at players after a wipe; rather, talk to them on how the group may improve. The next step Stepping it up to Raiding? Raiding for Newbies. Category:Guides Category:Newbies Instance Grouping Guide Instance Grouping Guide